Dirt conveyer



F. SPEND DIRT CONVEYER Dec. 5, 1939.

Filed Aug. 15, 1936 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 F. SPENO DIRT CO-NVEYER Dec. 5, 1939.

Filed Aug. 15, 1936 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Dec. 5, 1939. F. SPENO 2,182,139

DIRT CONVEYER Filed Aug. 15, 1936 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Dec. 5, 1939. v F. SPENO 2,182,139

DIRT CONVEYER Filed Aug. 15, 1936 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Dec. 5, 1939.

DIRT CONVEYER Filed Aug. 15, 1936 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 F. SPENO 2,182,139 v Patented Dec. 5, 1939 UNITED STATEE smear oFFicE.

2 Claims.

This invention relates to an improvement in dirt conveyers, particularly for use in connection with ballast cleaning machines of the type covered by my prior patents such, for instance,

as No. 1,951,451, granted March 20, 1934.

In the cleaning of ballast of railway tracks, the dirt is removedifrom the ballast and dis posed of, and the ballast is returned to the roadbed as cleaned ballast. In the type of ballast cleaning machines set forth in my prior patents, provision was mad-e forv distributing the dirt along the railroad track outside of the road-bed. In cuts and many other places, especially where there are multiple tracks, it is desirable to load the refuse or dirt removed from the ballast.

The object of my present invention is to provide for conveying the dirt from the ballast cleaning machine into a hopper car which follows the machine, with provision for distributing the dirt along the hopper car in order to fill the same evenly and uniformly throughout its length.

In carrying out this object, a series of conveyer sections are arranged for mounting on the top of the hopper car with the conveyer sections in overlapped relation and provided with means for regulating the discharge of the dirt from therespective sections into the hopper car or ontothe next succeeding section, as may be desired, depending upon the height of the pile of dirt beneath the respective sections. Provision is made for detachably fastening the distributing conveyer upon the hopper car so that it may be shifted from one carto another, and removed when the car is filled, to permit the latter to be hauled away in order to dump the dirt wherever desired and to permit an empty car to be substituted for the filled one, so that the operation may continue. 7

In order to direct the dirt from the ballast cleaning machine onto the hopper car conveyer, an inclined dirt conveyer is used and assembled on a fiat car in advance of the hopper car, so as to receive the dirt from the ballast cleaning machine conveyer and direct it upwardly onto the hopper car conveyer.

A preferred embodiment of this invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the ballast cleaning machine and dirt conveyer in use;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of an inclined dirt conveyer mounted on a flat car;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view, substantially on the line 3-3, of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the hopper car conveyer in place, parts being in section;

Fig. 5 is a similar view of the inlet end portion thereof, enlarged;

Fig. 6 is a transverse sectional View therethrough, on the line 6-5 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a side elevation of the final end section of the hopper car conveyer;

Fig. 8 is a vertical sectional view, substantially on the line 8-8, of Fig. 5;

Fig. 9 is a similar view, substantially on the line 99, of Fig. 5; and

Fig. 10 is a vertical sectional View through the frame structure, substantially on the line I0l0, of Fig. 4.

Referring to Fig. l of the drawings, the invention is shown in connection with a ballast cleaning machine of the type set forth in my prior patent, No. 1,951,451, granted March 20, 1934, which ballast cleaning machine is provided with scoops I, on opposite sides thereof for collecting the ballast and directing the same to conveyers 2, which carry it upwardly to a screen 3 for screening the ballast, from which the screened and cleaned ballast flows into a hopper 4, for directing the same back to the road-bed. The dirt, wln'ch passes through the screen 3, is received upon an endless conveyer 5, which is set forth in my above-mentioned patent, and also is the subject-matter of my prior patent, No. 1,804,286, granted May 5, 1931. Heretofore, it has been customary for the conveyer 5 to discharge the dirt to either side of the road-bed, but my present invention makes provision for collecting this dirt in a hopper car when it is undesirable to discharge it alongside the road bed.

In order to direct the dirt from the conveyer 5 onto the hopper car conveyer, I have provided an inclined conveyer shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and which includes an endless belt conveyer 6, mounted on rollers I, carried by an inclined frame ii. The frame 8 is mounted on supports a 9 and H], which are adjustable at H and 12, respectively, so as to adjust the height and inclination of the conveyer B to accommodate the varying lengths of different flat cars. The supports 9 and 19 are mounted on an ordinary flat car It, which is adapted to follow directly behind the ballast cleaning machine, as shown in Fig. 1.

The rear end of the conveyer 5 has its boom M supported on the flat car is, support 15, upon which the boom it rests and is held in place by pins It, which are removably inserted into the support 15 on opposite sides of the boom Hi to hold the conveyer 5 in proper position against transverse displacement relative to by means of a side of the roadbed. The conveyer 5 is arranged to throw the dirt directly into a hopper l9, arranged over the receiving lower end of the conveyer 6.

The conveyer 6 may be driven in any suitable manner, such, for instance, as by an electric or other motor supported by standards 26 on the fiat car 53, and which motor 263 drives the conveyer 6 through the medium of a chain 22, shownv in dotted lines on Fig. 2.

Referring to Fig. 1, it will be noted that the hopper car is of conventional form, and is designated generaly by the numeral 23, and it follows immediately behind the flat car 13, which carries the inclined conveyerv t. The hopper car 723 is adapted to receive the dirt from the con" veyer 6, and is provided with a distributing conveyer for the dirt, so as to distribute the dirt uniformly throughout the length of the hopper car, said distributing conveyer being divided into sections for directing the dirt, first, into one portion, and the into another portion of the hopper car, until all portions thereof are filled to the proper height.

The distributing conveyer is shown generally in Figs. 1 and 4, and more in detail in Figs. -,5 to 9. The distributing conveyer is made up of a plurality of frame sections 24, arranged substantially in parallel relation but inclined to a horizontal plane, with their adjacent ends rigidly connected together by means of side plates 25, which are shown in section in Fig. 9. This conveyer frame has supports 26 at opposite ends thereof, which rest upon the upper edges of the hopper car 23 being provided with guides 27, which fit inside of the hopper car, while clamps 28, engage the upper edge of the hopper car 23, being secured thereto by hand-screws 2: 2, which securely clamp the distributing conveyer structure directly to the upper edge of the hopper car 23. As shown in Figs. 4 and 10, the frame structure, including the sections it are supported intermediate the length of the distributing conveyer by uprights 36B and supports 3i which rest on the upper edges of the hopper car 23 at opposite sides thereof.

ihe distributing conveyer includes a number of endless belt conveyors 32, one supported by each of the frame sections 2d, and are mounted on rollers 33, carried by said frame sections. Each conveyer belt 32 passes over pulleys 34 at opposite ends thereof, mounted on the frame sections 24, and adjacent pulleys 3? are coupled together by means of drive chains 35 for simultaneous operation of the conveyer sections 32. The belts 32 are driven by means of a motor 36, such as an electric motor, mounted on a support 37, at one end of the frame, through a suitable drive chain 38, to an adjacent pulley 3 3, as shown in Fig. 7.

Referring to Fig. 5, the forward end section of the distributing conveyer is provided with a hopper 48 carried by the frame section 24 and over lying the belt conveyer section 32, being arranged with a partial closure at the top and rear as designated by the numeral 5 i, so as to receive the dirt thrown forwardly by the inclined conveyer 6, just preceding it, and to direct the dirt onto the underlying belt 32.

At the rear end of said forward section, and of each middle section 32, is a hopper 42, into which the next forward conveyer section 32 discharges. The hopper 42 has lateral discharge openings 43, as shown in Fig. 8, for directing the dirt downwardly into the section of the hopper car immediately therebeneath. Mounted in the hopper 42 is a deflector plate M, which is arranged to extend under the discharge end of the next forward section 32 to direct the dirt therefrom unto the next belt conveyer 32. The deflector plate M is mounted on a transverse shaft 25, shown in Fig. 9, and which shaft 45 extends transversely through the hopper 42 and has a segment 36 attached to the outer end of said shaft 25, which segment 46 carries a hand lever 4! for shifting the segment, shaft t5, and deflector plate 44 from the position shown in Fig. 5, to the position shown in Fig. '7, so that the deflector plate 44 will be turned forwardly away from the front end of the conveyer belt 32 for downward discharge'of the dirt through the openings @3. A pin 48 carried by one of the side plates 25 enters the segment 48 to hold the deflector plate M, in its set position.

The operation of my present invention will be obvious from the foregoing description, from which it will appear that the ballast collected by the ballast cleaning machine will have the dirt removed therefrom and deposited onto the conveyer 5, from which it may be discharged ofi" at either side of the road bed, or into the hopper car when it is undesirable to discharge it alongside the road bed. When the hopper car is used, the dirt is collected in the hopper car 23 by being conveyed by the conveyer 5 to hopper H], which is placed directly over the conveyer 6, so that the dirt falls through the hopper onto the conveyer 5. The latter is used so as to direct the dirt up to the height of the hopper car and the dirt is thrown forward from the conveyer 6 into the hopper it, at the forward end of the disf tributing conveyer. The dirt is caught by the closure of the hopper db, so as to direct it downwardly onto the first section of the distributing conveyer, comprising the first belt 32.

I The deflector plates id determine by theirpositions the section of the hopper car 23 into which the dirt is to be discharged. According to the positions of these deflector platesas represented in Figs. 4, 5 and 7, the first two deflector plates are in their forward positions as represented in dotted lines in Fig. 5, while the last deflector plate M is raised, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. '7, to direct the dirt downwardly into the last section of the car through the discharge openings 43 of the last hopper 32.

In filling the car initially, the first deflector plate 4- 1 would be open in the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 7, so as to direct the dirt from the first belt conveyer 32, downwardly into the hopper 42 from which it is discharged through the openings it into the first section of the hopper car. After that first section is filled to the proper height, the first deflector plate 44 is closed by the hand lever ll which is moved to the position shown in Fig. 5, and locked by the pin 48, and the next deflector plate 44 is then opened, so as to discharge the dirt downwardly into the middle section of the car. When that middle section is filled, the dirt is carried along to the last section, until finally all of the hopper car is filled to the desired height. Finally, when the hopper cars are all filled, the distributing conveyors may be removed therefrom bodily and transferred to another set of hopper cars to repeat the operation whenrequired. If desired,

however, one distributing conveyer may discharge into another distributing conveyer on a following hopper car, where it may be desirable to haul a train of several hopper cars for the dirt, without removing them individually.

The distributing conveyer may be transferred as desired from one hopper car to another and secured in place thereon, ready for use. It is complete in itself and may be easily transferred wherever desired.

I claim:

1. In a dirt conveyer including a plurality of units adapted to rest upon and be secured to the four upper edges of a hopper car, the combination of a plurality of frame sections arranged substantially in parallel relation and inclined to a horizontal plane with the upper end of one frame section located over the lower end of the next forward frame section, side plates rigidly connecting said ends together, supports at the outer ends of the conveyer adapted to rest upon the upper edges of the ends of a hopper car, said supports provided with guides which fit inside the ends of the hopper car, means for clamping the supports removably in place on the car, supports intermediate the length of the conveyer which rest on the upper edges of the opposite sides of the car, each unit having endless conveyers for conveying the material forwardly thereover, a hopper carried by the frame section and overlying the lower end of the lower- ,most endless conveyer, hoppers at the adjacent overlapped ends of the frames and endless conveyers into which the conveyer sections discharge, said last-mentioned hoppers having lateral side openings for directing the dirt downwardly into the hopper car immediately therebeneath, and a deflector plate pivotally mounted in the last-named hoppers arranged to extend under the discharge end of the endless conveyer thereabove to direct the dirt upon the next endless conveyer therebelow.

2. In a. dirt conveyer including a plurality of units adapted to rest upon and be secured to the four upper edges of a hopper car, the combination of a plurality of frame sections arranged substantially in parallel relation and inclined to a horizontal plane with the upper end of one frame section located over the lower end of the next forward frame section, side plates rigidly connecting said ends together, supports at the outer ends of the conveyer adapted to rest upon the upper edges of the ends of a hopper car, said supports provided with guides which fit inside the ends of the hopper car, means for clamping the support removably in place on the car, supports intermediate the length of the conveyer which rest on the upper edges of the opposite sides of the car, each unit having endless conveyers for conveying the material forwardly thereover, a hopper carried by the frame section and overlying the lower end of the lowermost endless conveyer, hoppers at the adjacent overlapped ends of the frames and endless conveyers into which the conveyer sections discharge, said last-mentioned hoppers having lateral side openings for directing the dirt downwardly into the hopper car immediately therebeneath, a deflector plate pivotally mounted in the last-named hoppers arranged to extend under the discharge end of the endless conveyer thereabove to direct the dirt upon the next endless conveyer therebelow, a shaft transversely mounted in the hopper, a segment attached to the outer end of said shaft, means connected with the segment for shifting the segment and rocking the shaft and deflector plate, whereby to direct the on-coming dirt from one endless conveyer to the other, or downwardly through the, lateral side openings, and a means for holding the segment in either of the extreme positions, whereby to provide for progressively loading the hopper car from one end toward the other.

FRANK SPENO. 

